(Washington, DC — December 1, 2009) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in November:
RFA Reports on lawyer detained over Twitter
Nov. 30 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a civil rights lawyer detained by police in southern China for teaching a class to college students about online censorship and the use of popular microblogging service Twitter.
RFA Reports on Christians held in Shanghai
Nov. 30 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a pastor of an unofficial Protestant church in Shanghai saying she is seeking compensation for mistreatment by police during her detention. Following her detention, hundreds of followers of the pastor’s church, banned from holding indoor meetings, gathered for an open-air service in one of the city’s parks.
RFA Reports on detention of Chinese AIDS activist
Nov. 27 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on Chinese authorities in Beijing detaining an AIDS activist from the southern province of Henan. Tian Xi, 22, who lives with HIV, was taken in by authorities after he planned to highlight the plight of people living with HIV in poverty-stricken, rural China on World AIDS Day.
RFA Reports on family’s plea for missing Chinese lawyer
Nov. 26 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on the family of a prominent civil rights lawyer who has been missing for more than nine months, calling on the Chinese government to disclose his whereabouts. Rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was last seen in public in February 2009 after reporting repeated kidnappings, detentions, surveillance, and beatings at the hands of the authorities.
RFA Reports on execution of two connected with Chinese tainted milk
Nov. 25 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on authorities in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang executing two people for their role in last year’s deadly tainted baby milk scandal. The sale and distribution of milk powder laced with melamine by the now-defunct Sanlu Group resulted in the deaths of at least six children and left hundreds of thousands sickened.
RFA Reports on sentencing of Sichuan quake activist
Nov. 23 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on the sentencing of a rights activist from southwestern China to three years in prison. Huang Qi was arrested by authorities after investigating shoddy school construction that was blamed for thousands of deaths during the massive 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
RFA Reports on investigation blaming bosses for deadly mine explosion
Nov. 23 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on an initial investigation placing blame on the bosses of a state-owned coal mine in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang for a recent underground gas explosion in which more than 100 people died.
RFA Reports on N. Korean defector alleging widespread military corruption
Nov. 22 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on corruption being so entrenched in North Korea that military officers are willing to disclose privileged information on nuclear test sites, according to an elite defector. In an interview with RFA, the defector alleged widespread bribery on all levels as a result of the collapse of the state-controlled ration distribution system, the opening of local markets, the breaking of laws to obtain food, and the under-funding of the military and local government units.
RFA Reports on Chinese activists being tried after Obama visit
Nov. 20 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on Sichuan authorities moving against rights activists, following President Barack Obama’s diplomatic visit to China.
RFA Reports on Phnom Penh fire leaving hundreds homeless
Nov. 20 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on hundreds of ethnic Cham Muslims being left homeless after a fire razed their crowded neighborhood in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
RFA Reports on Obama calling for Tibet talks
Nov. 18 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on U.S. President Barack Obama wrapping up his visit to China and calling on officials in Beijing to start talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom the ruling Communist Party has shunned as a separatist.
RFA Reports on jailed Vietnamese priest suffering stroke
Nov. 17 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on a Catholic priest, jailed for urging authorities to allow religious freedom in Vietnam, suffering from a stroke in prison. Relatives of Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, 63, say the priest has been left partially paralyzed by the stroke.
RFA Reports on executed Tibetan’s trial details
Nov. 16 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on court documents confirming the identity of one of three Tibetans believed to have been executed by Chinese authorities for their part in the Lhasa unrest of March 2008.
RFA Reports on Chinese reporters calling for freedoms on ‘Journalist Day’
Nov. 9 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on liberal journalists, scholars, and writers in China calling on officials to allow greater freedom of expression in the media, as the country celebrated its 10th annual National Journalist Day.
RFA Reports on Laos denying reports of mass detentions
Nov. 6 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on government officials in Laos denying reports that it had detained people on their way to stage a pro-democracy protest in the capital of Vientiane.
RFA Reports on N. Korean missile test failure
Nov. 5 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on the failed test-firing of five short-range missiles by North Korea in mid-October. None of the missiles launched hit the intended targets, according to an intelligence source.
RFA Reports on increasing of sex trafficking of Lao girls
Nov. 4 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on a growing number of girls from Laos being trafficked into neighboring Thailand and forced into prostitution.
RFA Reports on Burmese migrant workers exploited in Thailand
Nov. 4 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on Burmese migrant workers in Thailand being sold into forced labor despite paying large fees to human traffickers on the promise of finding legitimate employment.
RFA Reports on questions looming about Tibetan man killed in custody
Nov. 3 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on Chinese police shooting and killing a Tibetan truck driver after seizing his load of timber in the Kardze region of the country’s Sichuan province. Whether police are conducting an internal investigation on the incident remains unclear.
RFA Reports on Uyghur detainees in Palau still ‘cut off’
Nov. 2 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on six Uyghur ex-detainees from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay relocated to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean who remain unable to contact family and friends in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.
